Words Eye View

Alan Chambers Goes Back to Egypt

(Editor: In yesterday’s National Issues section of The Trumpet Online we carried the article about the end of Exodus International and the apology of its President Alan Chambers to the “Gay” community, who himself has struggled with same-sex attraction, and says the organization has been ‘imprisoned’ in a worldview that is not truly biblical.

Following is another point of view from Dr. Scott Lively of Defend the Family. Also The Trumpet would like to hear from those who have been delivered from sodomy by the power of the gospel, who can say with Paul the Apostle, “[Romans 1:16] “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” and who are willing to give public testimony that they have been delivered from the sin of sodomy, “…by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony…” [Rev. 12:11].

The headlines in the liberal media are gleefully trumpeting the demise of Exodus International, the leading icon of the ex-"gay" movement. "From 'pray away the gay' to acceptance," chortles the LA Times. But this is not really a story about an organization, but only its leader Alan Chambers and his unfortunate capitulation to the world. I invite you to join me in prayer for him.

Those of us "in the know" have over the past few years watched Alan slowly transform Exodus into his own private fiefdom, while at the same time he gravitated inexorably away from recovery. By recovery I mean the state of mind which focuses on freedom in Christ from bondage to sin as exemplified by 1 Corinthians 6:9-11: "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God."

In anticipation of this sad day many former Exodus member organizations broke away months ago and formed a new organization, the Restored Hope Network. RHN will carry on the important work of the church in helping homosexuals to recover from same-sex attraction disorder. I applaud the courage of these men and women to remain true to Scripture in the face of intense hostility and persecution from the "gay" movement and its many powerful allies. Their ministry will not be made any easier by the triumphal gloating and attacks of their now greatly emboldened detractors.

It was this same relentless grinding hostility that undoubtedly contributed to the fall of Alan Chambers (few can bear it for long, just ask the Boy Scouts), but in addition to this "stick" there was also a "carrot" that led him astray: an insidious form of "gay" theology that misrepresents God's grace as a license to sin, or at least a license to embrace a personal identity defined by a desire to indulge in homosexual sin.

Alan Chambers of Exodus International

Don't get me wrong. I am a pastor whose theology is deeply rooted in the truth of grace, and I don't believe that homosexual sin is any greater barrier to salvation than any other sin. It's one thing, however, to acknowledge that some heaven-bound Christians may struggle with homosexual desires and even conduct, but an entirely different matter to condone and affirm a homosexual "orientation" as if God intended it to be one's basis for self-identification. The former is solidly Biblical, the latter is dangerous heresy. God did not create people to have no choice in a behavior He condemns as an abomination, and He wants us never to identify with our sin nature but to strive always to overcome it. These are fundamental tenets of Scripture.

The world today mocks the notion that homosexuals can change, but what is truly ridiculous, even by secular standards of logic, is the insistence that a person cannot reorient their sexual nature to comport with their heterosexual physiology. Normalcy is, after all, that with conforms to its design, and all of us, even "homosexuals," have a heterosexual design. That fact is simply self-evident to anyone with a rational mind. Yet Christians, among whom Alan Chambers still counts himself, are required to hold to an even higher standard of truth: God's Word. Under that standard, the self-evident truth just mentioned is also the perspective of our Omniscient, Omnipotent Creator God: "Such were some of you." And, of course, there are many ex-"gays" who know the truth of that verse living among us in victory over their former disorientation, just as there were in the early church.

For many years Exodus International was an organization true to the Bible, adopting as its theme the Hebrew exodus from bondage in Egypt to freedom in the wilderness. In that story the hero is Moses who stayed true to God while the people often grumbled and wanted to go back to Egypt where life in slavery seemed less difficult than their struggles under freedom. Ironically, in the Exodus International story, it is Moses Alan Chambers who has turned back to Egypt, while the people he once led keep pressing on toward the Promised Land. I pray these strugglers will not be overly discouraged by Alan's failure. After all, here, just as in the Bible story, the true leader wasn't really Moses, it was and is God. And He never fails.